BOD conflicts of interest

I say it applies to your association business done by Officers, Directors, Managers and it does not apply to non-association business.

As long as the board member donated his own money and not association funds, it's fine.

Our attorney defined a conflict of interest as an association issue or decision in which the director has a financial interest in the outcome. There could be an issue if the director makes a decision involving one entity (eg. HOA) in order to benefit the other entity he has a duty toward (the city). This should only occur if the two entities were at odds with each other over some topic, in which case the HOA director could not do right by both parties - the solution would be to recuse himself from any discussions and voting on the topic.

The OP's plain & clear question: Is the $$ donated by an HOA board member, accepted by the city commissioner, also a board member, a conflict of interest? No; because such activity is completely unrelated to the association and its business. The donation of one to the other also is of no interest to the HOA. I truly can't see any reason to thrash deep into the weeds on this one.

Florida Statutes 720.3033 Officers and directors: "(3) An officer, director, or manager may not solicit, offer to accept, or accept any good or service of value for which consideration has not been provided for his or her benefit ... from any person providing or proposing to provide goods or services to the association."

Which of these two directors is "...providing or proposing to provide goods or services to the association?"

In this case, there does not seem to be anything here that would violate state laws since it does not directly relate to association business.

A board member does provide a service to the association.

Any board member is providing a service to the association.

The statute section says what it says. I think the statute section's intent is clear: It's trying to prevent graft, bribery and such in HOAs. E.g. Director Smith giving money to Director Corleone can have the effect of buying Corleone's vote on issues before the board.

KerryL1,

From the very start, I said that a donation to director Bigshot's campaign is not the same as giving money to director Bigshot. Courts have made this distinction many a time. Hence FS 720.3033 is not violated here.

As for Director Sycophant taking Director Bigshot sailing, without Bigshot paying for this: If there is a dollar value associated with such trips, then IMO this would violate FS 720.3033. It's the same idea as a HOA vendor giving Director Bigshot special favors.

For FS 720.3033, Girl Scout cookies do not count, because this involves "consideration," meaning a contract is in place. There might be FS 617.0832 conflict of interest violations, but FS 617.0832 is different from what FS 720.3033 aims to prevent.

I merely gave examples of favors that one director does for another director. Maybe many favors. Maybe big favors, i.e., "things of value." A director here in my urban condo bldg. with two parking spots and one car routinely lets another director who has two cars/two spaces and lotsa local visitors in cars. Without the standing offer, the 2nd director would often have to pay to park on the street or in a lot.

It's not unusual for some directors to be friends of other directors. We all know how hard it is to get candidates for vacancies or elections with vacancies to be filled. So directors gravitate towards owners they've come to know and enjoy and maybe trust. There's this shared affinity; a director does ask the friend to serve on the Board. Friendships often are built on exchanges, many not financial. I'm friends with him because he makes me laugh. He's friends with me because I'm always honest and frank with him.

ElleN maintains that because Dir. B rec'd big favors from Dir. A., Dir. B must never 2nd or vote to approve a motion that Dir. presents. IMO, ElleN might be missing the context of the statute. She insists that Dir. A. in his role as a director, is a "person providing... goods or services to the association."

But in reading the entire statute I believe that a "person providing...goods or services" refers to vendors who do/want to do business with the association. 720.3033 (3) continues by saying, "However, [a] director...may accept food to be consumed at a business meeting with a value of less than $25 per individual or a service or good received in connection with trade fairs or education programs." So directors may accept limited gifts or favors from vendors in certain settings. The idea that directors would offer such in those settings is nonsensical.

Right, though about the conflict of interest, which isn't actually Steve's topic, directors "should" recuse themselves in some circumstances if there is a conflict. But, yes, that is a different topic.

In our case director/commish. has a vested interest in getting director2 elected to the board to keep his political donations coming and director2 gets a guaranteed vote in his favor on any project he wants to propose. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Falsifying HOA documents is a serious offence(along with others). I am just inquiring about possible other violation, that are not clear, by the board in case this has to go to court. Thanks for your input anyway.

In reality, Steve, many directors seek fellow directors who share their personal interests. In my 14 years on our Board 'til my end of '21 retirement., we had two such batches.

A director was passionate about our landscaping and persuaded two others to run for the board so they could make our gated urban HOA's raised planters much more beautiful. Yes, 3 on the board of 6. Every month, they wanted a study or to tear out x, y & z planter and buy a bunch of new stuff. They even wanted to take out our gorgeous coral tree in the center of our circle drive claiming it was damaging the pavers that surround its planter. We actually hired a f&!% arborist to show the tree was doing no damage. So, their affinity for each other and their shared personal interest consumed a LOT of our Board's time and more $$ than a "normal" objective board would have spent. They, of course campaigned for each other.

Similarly a director had been 20 years in the military & 20 years as a police officer in a nearby small city. He was obsessed with security. Another director came on the Board who'd years earlier been a L.A. detective for several years until he was shot in the had (really). They, though we've had no break-ins or crime in our gated urban HOA, became very friendly and pushed a lot for more expensive security stuff AND staff. On & on at board meetings! They shared certain politics too, which made them even more nervous about "crime."

You say Dr. 2 gets a guaranteed vote on any "project." But unless your HOA is approving one project after another, usually there aren't that many. And what if Dir. 2's ideas are good ones? And so what if he campaigns for Dir. 2. Let it go, Steve.